>> DRIVING THE DAY: Apple breaks revenue, iPhone, and iPad records in Q1 of 2014, by Andrew Cunningham: "The company earned $13.1 billion in profit on a record $57.6 billion in revenue... Apple sold 51 million iPhones, up from 47.79 million in the year-ago quarter; 26 million iPads, up from 22.86 million a year ago; and 4.84 million Macs, up from 4.06 million last year. These three categories alone make up 87.4 percent of Apple's total revenue. The iPhone and iPad numbers represent new quarterly records for the company, while this is the first significant year-over-year increase in Mac sales the company has experienced in some time... Sales for iTunes, software, and services were up slightly, earning the company $4.4 billion compared to $3.69 billion a year ago. The increase comes despite a decrease in digital music sales for the year, as well as Apple's decision to give most of its major software (including OS X and the iLife and iWork apps) away for free." Ars Technica

> Global smartphone shipments top 1 billion for the first time thanks to cheap Android devices, says IDC TechCrunch

>> TROJAN BIRD: NSA and GCHQ target 'leaky' phone apps like Angry Birds to scoop user data, by James Ball: "Scooping up information the apps are sending about their users allows the agencies to collect large quantities of mobile phone data from their existing mass surveillance tools -- such as cable taps, or from international mobile networks -- rather than solely from hacking into individual mobile handsets... The NSA has cumulatively spent more than $1bn in its phone targeting efforts." The Guardian> Snowden docs reveal British spies snooped on YouTube and Facebook NBC News> NSA/GCHQ use Lolcats to discuss what they learn by spying on all of our YouTube views and Facebook likes TechDirt> Gearing up for midterm elections, candidates jostle to be most anti-NSA Ars Technica> US looks at ways to prevent spying on NSA spying Yahoo News> U.S. to allow companies to disclose more details on government requests for data, by Craig TimbergWaPo> Apple says it received fewer than 250 National Security Orders in the first half of 2013 Engadget> The great escape: How the NSA is driving companies out of U.S. clouds InfoWorld

>> CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS: If you used this secure webmail site, the FBI has your inbox, by Kevin Poulsen: "While investigating a hosting company known for sheltering child porn last year the FBI incidentally seized the entire e-mail database of a popular anonymous webmail service called TorMail. Now the FBI is tapping that vast trove of e-mail in unrelated investigations. The bureau's data windfall, seized from a company called Freedom Hosting, surfaced in court papers last week when prosecutors indicted a Florida man for allegedly selling counterfeit credit cards online. The filings show the FBI built its case in part by executing a search warrant on a Gmail account used by the counterfeiters, where they found that orders for forged cards were being sent to a TorMail e-mail account: 'platplus@tormail.net.' Acting on that lead in September, the FBI obtained a search warrant for the TorMail account, and then accessed it from the bureau's own copy of 'data and information from the TorMail e-mail server, including the content of TorMail e-mail accounts,' according to the complaint sworn out by U.S. Postal Inspector Eric Malecki." Wired

>> OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE: Microsoft contributes cloud server designs for Facebook's Open Compute Project, by John Ribeiro: "Microsoft is contributing the designs of the cloud servers that run some of its services like Bing and Windows Azure to the Open Compute Project, in a bid to help standardize and reduce hardware costs... [Microsoft] is also contributing system management source code to the project. It said it aimed to create an open source software community in the Open Compute Project." InfoWorld

>> WEAKEST LINK: Old-school Wi-Fi is slowing down networks, Cisco says, by Stephen Lawson: "The IEEE 802.11 standard, now available in numerous versions with speeds up to 6.9Gbps (bits per second) and growing, still requires devices and access points to be compatible with technologies that date to the late 1990s. But those older standards -- the once-popular 802.11b and an even slower spec from 1997 -- aren't nearly as efficient as most Wi-Fi being sold today. As a result, Cisco thinks the 802.11 Working Group and the Wi-Fi Alliance should find a way to let some wireless gear leave those versions behind." InfoWorld

>> TWINS #FAIL AGAIN: Leading Bitcoin exec charged in Silk Road money laundering scheme, by Chris O'Brien: "The chief executive of a Bitcoin startup backed by the Winklevoss twins was arrested Monday and charged with laundering money through a notorious drug-trafficking site. The Department of Justice said that it had charged Robert M. Faiella and Charlie Shrem with selling $1 million worth of Bitcoins to people attempting to buy and sell drugs on the Silk Road black market website... Shrem was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and charged with money laundering." LA Times> New York vying with California to write bitcoin rulesBloomberg> Bitcoin and the fictions of moneyNew York Times Bits> How is bitcoin taxed? The IRS doesn't knowNational Journal

>> OPENS BEER BOTTLES, TOO: Smartphones to open doors at some hotels, by Craig Karmin: "Guests arriving at the Aloft Hotel in Manhattan or one in Silicon Valley will soon be able to do something hotels have dreamed about offering for years: walk past the check-in desk and enter their rooms by using a smartphone as a room key... Guests at these properties will receive a message on a Starwood app containing a virtual key, which will unlock the door with a tap or twist of their phone through the use of Bluetooth technology. The company says the iPhone 4s or newer models and the Android phones running 4.3 or newer will be compatible." Wall Street Journal